Worshippers massacred as gunmen bring terror to Christchurch mosques

An Australian is among those who have been arrested after 49 people were killed and dozens more were injured in terrorist shooting attacks at two Christchurch mosques.

Key points:

A man has been charged with murder over shootings in the Al Noor mosque, before a second attack on a mosque in nearby Linwood

An Australian is among those arrested

The ABC has identified Grafton man Brenton Tarrant in livestreamed footage of the attack

At least one gunman with a semi-automatic weapon massacred worshippers gathered for Friday prayers in two locations: a mosque at Deans Avenue in central Christchurch and another mosque in the nearby suburb of Linwood.

New Zealand police arrested three men and a woman in the aftermath of the attacks, and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed one of those taken into custody was an Australian-born citizen.

New Zealand Police Commissioner Mike Bush said one man in his late 20s had been charged with murder, two other people remained in custody and the other — who was armed at the scene — may not have had anything to do with the attack.

Mr Bush said 41 people died at the Masjid al-Noor mosque on Deans Avenue, seven at the Linwood Avenue mosque, and one more later in hospital. Forty people have been treated for injuries at Christchurch Hospital.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinta Ardern said the attacks had clearly been “well-planned” and labelled this “one of New Zealand’s darkest days”.

“It is clear that this can now only be described as a terrorist attack. From what we know, it does appear to have been well-planned,” she said.

“These are people who I would describe as having extremist views, that have absolutely no place in New Zealand, and in fact have no place in the world.

“While we do not have any reason to believe at this stage that there are any other suspects, we are not assuming that at this stage.”

Ms Ardern went on to offer “the strongest possible condemnation of the ideology of the people who did this”.

“You may have chosen us, but we are utterly reject and condemn you.”

Mr Morrison said Australia was grieving with New Zealanders over the “extremist, right-wing terrorist attack”.

“As family members with our New Zealand cousins today, we grieve, we are shocked, we are appalled, we are outraged, and we stand here and condemn absolutely the attack that occurred today by an extremist, right-wing, violent terrorist,” he said.

A vigil was held on Friday night at Australia’s largest mosque, where hundreds of people gathered to pray for the victims of the shootings.

Bombs found in car as Christchurch goes into lockdown

New Zealand police confirmed in the hours after the shootings they had taken three men and a woman into custody.

Two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were found on a nearby vehicle, but defence force officers disarmed one and are still working on disarming the second.

“There have been huge acts of bravery to apprehend these people, but let’s not assume that the threat is over. We are as visually equipped as we can be,” Mr Bush said.

“As you can imagine this is requiring every police and emergency resource that we have available. We have defence force aircraft in Wellington ready to fly more resources into the area, and we will do that from other locations nearby as well.

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